Dias de los Muertos Ceremony Keeps Latinos Linked to Past

Karen Pierce Gonzalez

Published 4:00 am, Friday, October 27, 2000

Manuel Castro of San Rafael remembers the dead. Growing up as a small boy in Los Michos, Mexico, he, his family and neighbors would tend to the village graveyard in preparation for the Dias de los Muertos, the Days of the Dead, held each year on Nov. 1 and 2.

Hauling buckets of water to the site, they would clean headstones, scrub crypts and pull weeds in preparation for Nov. 1, when village families would have picnics, dance and light candles to honor the spirits of those who had died.

A second day, Nov. 2, is set aside in many Latin countries for El Dia de los Ninos, to remember children who had died. For Castro, 40, that means remembering his older sister, Rosario, who died at age 2, many years before he was born. "She was always la nina, the little girl."

"El Dia is a very spiritual time for me," he said. He still lights candles and places photographs and flowers on an altar in his home. This tradition, rooted in Aztec, Mayan and Spanish beliefs that the spirits of the dead travel to another place helps him keep his connections to the past, to loved ones no longer alive.

"I don't want to forget them. It's very healing to tell them I still love them," said Castro, who came to California 14 years ago. It is his culture, he said, to remember death: "It is a part of life's cycle."

This year's Picklewood Center activities include a procession, display of community altars and live music. The event is sponsored by Triunfo (Spanish for triumph), a grassroots Latino organization, and the city of San Rafael. Other co-sponsors include Marin Arts Council, Falkirk Cultural Center, the San Rafael Public Library and Antennae Theatre.

Theatre members in skeleton and grim reaper costumes make up one of the parade's featured groups. So do the Mixcoatl Anahua Aztec Drums and Dancers of San Francisco, who will lead the candlelight procession through the primarily Spanish and Vietnamese-speaking immigrant neighborhood. Oscar Segura of San Rafael will also be among those who bring something special and new to this year's celebration. He will be flying the traditional barrilete gigante, or giant kite, a colorful Day of the Dead art form from his native Guatemala. Decorated with the names of the deceased or with pictures and photographs, these fragile cellophane paper kites serve as messengers to the dead.

"People think that the Dead come once a year to visit the earth and that we can make contact with them through the kites," said Segura. He noted that it is common for people to attach written notes of remembrance onto a kite's string before it is released into the wind. Entire families often share one kite, according to Segura, who remembers "being so poor that they were not able to buy kites already made." It could take family members weeks to make a kite, he said. "This is what keeps communities together," added Segura, who is excited about bringing this ritual to Marin.

"So many Guatemalan people live in the Canal, and they probably haven't seen this tradition for years," said Segura, 34, who came to this country 10 years ago. In Guatemala, kites can be as big as 22 feet wide. Back home, his family could only afford to make kites that were about 2 feet wide. "Sometimes they flew, sometimes they didn't," said Segura who, along with others, has made a 9-foot-wide kite for this year's parade. "The kites come to represent the spirits of the dead in flight." According to tradition, that movement represents the passage from life to death. It was believed that a soul would pass through nine levels prior to reaching its final destination. The modern view of this celebration, meant to help souls reach their destination, took on its Catholic overtones following the Spanish conquest of Mexico in 1521. Known as the Day of the Dead and All Souls Day, it is an official holiday of the Catholic calendar. During this time, prayers and masses are said by clergy to assist souls migrating from Purgatory to Heaven. In some countries, such as Mexico, clergy also will bless gravesites decorated by parishioners. For the Rev. Kevin Tripp, executive director of the Marin Interfaith Council, this tradition of honoring the dead, found in all of the world's religions, is an important spiritual practice.

"Memory and remembering are powerful spiritual experiences that can be a source of healing and celebration," he said. The Catholic priest went on to say that events such as the upcoming Canal festivity offset "the emphasis our culture has placed on death and dying." Debbie McCrea, coordinator of San Rafael's El Dia de los Muertos also sees the annual event as "a meaningful way to view death." Through this tradition, the San Rafael resident said, we can look at death "as a passage." More than 30 community altars will be on display this weekend at the center and almost 1,000 school children are expected to participate in a guided tour and related activities on Monday. Community groups contributing altars include the Canal Soccer Youth Academy, Marin County Human Rights Commission, Marin AIDS Project, American Cancer Society and Marin Services for Women. Those interested can contribute a note or flower to the general community altar on Friday.

"Last year we had more than 600 children here," said McCrea, who has developed a program that includes a slide show explaining the tradition, storytelling, art activities and a panel discussion with community clergy members, including the Rev. Carol Hovis of the San Rafael Canal Ministry.

"Children like the altars, and they want to make sense of death," said McCrea, a Spanish-language teacher at San Marin High School in Novato and mother of two elementary school-age children. After the parade, there will be performances by Ballet Folklorico Netzahualcotl, directed by Vidal Netzahualcotl of San Rafael. Dancers from Sonoma and Marin will re-enact the graveside visit of las bruhas, female spirits, who dance with candles on their heads to light their way in the darkness. Inside Pickleweed, confectionery artist Patricia Polanco of San Quentin Village will be helping children decorate the customary sugar skulls so popular this time of year.

"We write the name of a deceased person on the skull, just as the Aztecans and Mayans did when they had to rebury their dead," said Polanco. The Texas native learned about this tradition, and many others, including the decoration of her front door with paper flowers, from her grandmother, a native of Mexico.

"When I do this, I am honoring my grandmother," said Polanco. The loss of a loved one is sad, said Castro, and El Dia de los Muertos gives people a chance to have closure around that loss. "I've seen people come to the celebration, view the altars and make peace with death. This is very healing." It's also a way to bridge the diverse communities of Marin and to ensure a place in this country for immigrants. "In this country, we all have a right to keep our cultures alive."